Melbourne Qualifying: Hamilton and Mercedes demolish Ferrari

The sandbagging and 'fake' concerns in the Silver Arrows camp were unwarranted as the W10, is another great piece of kit with an edge over their rivals in Party Mode, as the season begins, seven-tenths is an age in Formula 1 and an ominous signal for the other teams on the grid.

Hamilton was made to graft for his sixth pole in succession, his eighth at the venue, as Bottas found some good pace in his first run in Q3, which Hamilton failed to match with an untidy first lap in the last session. But typically the five-time F1 World Champion found that extra bit that he has to take top spot with a startling 1:20.485 which was good for pole by a tenth over car #77.

He said afterwards, "I'm shaking, what a beautiful day and thank you to the crowd for a great atmosphere. The team had no idea during testing what we would be up against and they've worked so hard in the factory and here this weekend - the team have worked to perfection. Congratulations to Valtteri [Bottas] also. It's great to see the top six teams top within a second of each, it's great to see."

Bottas laid down an impressive marker with his first run in Q3, but was again short on firepower to beat his teammate when it mattered, "We really made some good progress, I had a difficult practice three and we turned things around for the qualifying. The Q3 lap one was really good, I enjoyed that. Fortunately, it wasn't enough for pole but Lewis did a great job at the end and I struggled a bit in the first sector on the second run. Anyway, it was fun and I look forward to tomorrow."

Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto's first session in charge of the Reds was not a memorable one as Vettel was six tenths shy of Hamilton's best in third place and Charles Leclerc, who topped Q1, was almost a full second shy of car #44 and down in fifth.

Not the start of the season the Scuderia expected, the qualy gap far bigger than anyone imagined and the Merc party-mode the one to have.

Credit to last year's winner Vettel for appearing unfazed by the demolition job when asked if he could win the race on Sunday, the German replied, "Of course I think we can, you never know what's happening."

"The race is over when there's a chequered flag we have a good car and a good strategy we are here to race so we'll see what happens tomorrow

The Red Bull Honda era finally got underway, but it was a bittersweet day as Max Verstappen wrestled the RB15 around Albert Park to fourth place on the grid, while his teammate Pierre Gasly failed to make it beyond Q3 in what has not been a hassle-free induction to Red Bull as he would have hoped for.

Haas confirmed that they have a handy car as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were Best of the Rest in seventh and eighth respectively, albeit 1.4 seconds down on the benchmark time, suggesting the midfield has not made serious inroads in closing the gap to the Big Three.

The Driver of the Day must be young Lando Norris who qualified eighth fastest on his first Saturday as a Formula 1 driver. The teenager, fastest of the Renault-powered quartet never put a foot wrong while his more experienced teammate Carlos Sainz failed to make it beyond Q1.

Alfa Romeo looked racy throughout practice with veteran Kimi Raikkonen particularly so but, in qualy, they lacked compared to fellow-Ferrari powered Haas. The Finn was ninth quickest. with rookie teammate Antonio Giovinazzi 14th.

Disappointments? There were many.

Renault confirmed suspicions that they might be in trouble. On the engine front, Norris saved face (if you can call it that) for the French manufacturer whose works cars were 11th and 12th, with Nico Hulkenberg a tenth quicker than his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Not where the team targeting Best of the Rest this season wanted to be at the beginning of their campaign, particularly galling for Renault will be Verstappen's performance in the Honda-powered Red Bull. For now it is Red Bull one, Renault zero.

Lance Stroll's first qualifying for his father Lawrence's team was forgettable as he struggled to find the sweet spot despite appearing to have the edge over Sergio Perez during free practice. The Mexican was good for 10th, with the Canadian set to line up in 16th on Sunday.

Toro Rosso will also be disappointed that they were not further up the road, their package is better than 13th and 15th, with rookie Alex Albon beating returnee Daniil Kvyat but the car had more in it if free practice was anything to go by.

Finally, and unfortunately, we will be writing this many times this year, Williams were stone last by a country mile with George Russell and Robert Kubica 19th and 20th respectively.

The Grove outfit in disarray, after Culprit-in chief-Paddy Lowe bailed out of the sinking ship, were four seconds off the pole time, over 1.3 seconds down on their closest rivals in Q1.

Kubica’s first F1 qualifying in over eight years is not one he will remember. He suffered a right rear puncture and ended up skidding over the grass on his final effort in Q1.

Despite preseason smokescreens and other "bullshit" from Mercedes during the preseason, they start the season as clear favourites with their incredible power unit package again delivering on tap when required.

This time they pumped up the volume a tad too loud (normally they are more cautious) and inadvertently revealed what they have now is at least half a second up on their rivals at round one of this 21-round title fight.

Thus Toto Wolff's post-qualy soundbite was priceless: "I'm overwhelmed, after winter testing, it really didn't look like this at all."

The Merc boss team chief conveniently neglecting to say that his Silver cars have been running with sandbags until they chucked them out for qualy.